UPS informs me my Allen and Ginter boxes will arrive on the 14th. Ugh. By that time it will be time all the Gint-a-cuffs will be over and it will be time for the Upper Deck Icons-o-clash. That’s okay, though, because I knew it’d take forever for me to open my packs anyway.

Until then, I’m hoping to start whacking away at more of your wantlists, including Dan’s from Saints of the Cheap Seats. After posting my wants last week, Dan sent a quick email saying he’d send me some stuff. And boy, did he.

The first thing I pulled out was a note.

Wait, that’s not for me. And the guy it’s addressed to is the guy sending me these cards. Then I noticed that Dan’s saving the earth (and money) by reusing bubble mailers, and this note just got stuck on the inside. So Dan, if you were mad at Jeff that he didn’t send a note, don’t be. I’ve got it,and it’s safe.

Then, an actual note from Dan and a think stack of cards inculding:

Cy Young Career Best Legends. Listed with the Cleveland Naps. Awesome.

I love the look of this Helton Turkey Red. It makes me think he’s at some municipal park somewhere and he’s been practicing all day and into the dusk. I just wonder what he’s going to throw the ball at with that downward sightline.

One of last year’s insert chases, the Trading Card History set. Zambrano’s showing off the 1922 E120 design origianlly released by American Caramel. If Topps were true to the set, it’d be a blue-green card stock with green ink since Zamboni’s in the NL. The orignals, as usual, look much nicer than this.

Most of those Topps Dark cards look really nice with the all black. This one of David Eckstien does not. It looks like two separate images on one card without the background to tie it together. Any word on if Topps is doing this for series 2 as well? I’m not sure my bank account can take another hit.

Finally, a few random Reds. These are my first Heroes and Sweet Spot cards ever. Dunn is trying to become what I can only imagine is the first player to hit more home runs (22) then his team has wins (24). And Harang just needs some run support. The kind Adam Dunn could provide.

Perhaps my favorite of the bunch, though, is this purple monstrosity from 1991 Classic. I think this beauty speaks for itself, really.

is charging $120/box or $5/ pack for me to scratch that Ginter itch. I laughed. I’ve got two boxes coming in the mail for just a little more than that.

And I’ve been posting this in comments elsewhere, but seriously: Blowout has boxes of Allen and Ginter for $73.99. Atlanta Sports Cards has them for $75.99. I think those are the best deals I’ve seen so far. If you can wait, I’d try there first.

Mario from a popular blog you may have heard of before worked out a trade for some hockey cards a few months ago. I told Mario at the time that I was in no hurry to get the cards, but he still felt bad and sent me a handful of 2008/09 Be A Player Autographs to apologize. Apology accepted, good sir. But you still didn’t have to do it.

For those unfamiliar, Be A Player started back in the mid 90’s and was one of the first (if not the first) releases that promised a signature in every pack. The initial release was a joint venture with Upper Deck and the NHLPA, but wasn’t licensed by the NHL. It was awarded worst set ever over at Get High on Hockey. Throughout the years, different companies have taken up the Be A Player mantle, but in 2005/06 Upper Deck took the reins once more.

One of the cooler things about the one per pack autos back in the 90’s is that they were numbered the same as the set. So if you wanted to collect all the auto parallels (as I once started to do in 1999), it was pretty straight forward. Upper Deck’s changed that, though.

Now, I wasn’t going to collect this set anyway, and certainly not the parallel version. But if I had any inkling to do so, Upper Deck’s numbering decision would totally turn me off. You can see there they went from using the same numbers as the base card to using a players initials. Anytime I have to do research just to put together a wantlist, well, it’s going to be a big turn off. Just another bad decision on Upper Deck’s part, if you ask me.

As for the design itself, well, it’s alright I guess. I’m not a huge fan of it overall, and all the cards Mario sent were sticker autos. I’m pretty certain the 99/00’s I have were all hard signed, but that’s where we are in the hobby today. I don’t have an autographed card of Marc-Andre Fleury, I have a signed sticker of Marc-Andre Fleury that Upper Deck stuck on a card for me. Once I think about it like that, it really takes some of the fun out of it.

Finally, he threw in this Voracek jersey card from the most cherished of hockey’s historic moments, the rookie jersey shoot. Voracek didn’t shine as many thought he would this year, but did show some glimmers that will help him maintain his promising status going into next year. The Blue Jackets have always been a secondary favorite of a team, so this card was a very welcome addition to my collection.